


Antigravity

by cardinalwrites



Category: SPN, Supernatural
Genre: AU, Destiel - Freeform, M/M, NASA, Oneshot, fake relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-09
Updated: 2016-09-09
Packaged: 2018-08-14 03:10:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7996423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cardinalwrites/pseuds/cardinalwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's a normal Thursday, the first one Cas has had off in forever. He decides to spend it at his favorite bar, the exact same place where Dean and Lisa were about to end their relationship. Only, hold on, Dean just said Cas was his ex? Cas would've remembered dating Dean, so what's going on?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Antigravity

 

It’s the first night Castiel has had free in what feels like forever. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Thursday, but with the rocket launch getting closer management has had all engineers on staff 24/7 for the last two months working on the Elysium-1 set to launch within the year. Zachariah’s riding Castiel’s ass for everything since Cas is the head of the engineering for the astronaut suit and training program, so for Cas to have one day off is a miracle that he will gladly spend in Harvelle’s just down the street of the center. Ellen offers free beers for all the engineers since Ash is a part of the program.

Today Castiel was in the back end of the booths in a secluded area, affectionately termed “Castiel’s Corner” since Cas enjoyed the privacy of a quiet beer and a good book, but that doesn’t mean the corner isn’t also the home to the perfect eavesdropping location in the entire place. Cas could hear _everything_ , for better or for worse, and this is how Castiel found himself listening in on the end of Dean Winchester’s current affair with Lisa Breaden.

Castiel didn’t know Dean personally, but Jo, Ellen’s daughter, sure did. She spoke often enough about how things were going south between Lisa and Dean, but for the most part Castiel barely paid attention to the gossip. It wasn’t his place and Dean was straight, but that didn’t stop him from angling his ear to hear that Lisa was asking Dean to find someone else.

“You and I both know we work better as friends,” Lisa had been saying, “I just think maybe it’s time we took off the label and you found someone else.”

“What label? We never really had one to begin with,” a somewhat annoyed Dean responded. “I get that you wanna see Matt, and I’m not gonna stop you, but I don’t need to be in a relationship to be happy you know.”

At this point Lisa was pouting. Castiel gathered she was a sensible woman that only wanted the best for what apparently was becoming her ex-boyfriend. “I’m not saying you need to be in one right away or anything, I just don’t want to you wallow in your wounds. I know you. What I’m saying is let me find someone for you.” Castiel didn’t hear any response after that, causing him to peer over the booth veranda to look at the couple.

They were towards the center of the place, Dean in a red striped plaid shirt and Lisa in a sensible yet elegant shirt and jeans. It had all the makings of a romantic dinner if you didn’t overhear their conversation. Dean was looking down when Castiel peered over, but before Castiel could retract his obviously staring eyes (damn, Dean was a looker), green eyes locked with blue. Castiel had been caught.

Dean looked confused, be it because a rather mysterious man was staring at him or he’d just lost the longest relationship he’d ever had, he doesn’t really know. The minute-long stare didn’t get past Lisa though, who promptly turned in Castiel’s direction as well.

Cas cursed under his breath. _Way to go rocket scientist, you just got busted._ He quickly withdrew into his seat and continued sipping his Blue Moon beer. _I’m an idiot._

“Who was that? You looked like you knew him.” Castiel cringed as Lisa brings him up.

“That’s… that’s my ex.”

 

* * *

 

Castiel nearly spewed out his beer.

His _ex_?

There was nothing said for a long time before Lisa speaks. “I thought we were gonna be honest about our past, Dean…” Her words are slightly angry, but Castiel caught the look of sadness in her eyes from one of the mirrors in the bar.

“I don’t exactly talk about it much. We ended on bad terms. He was just…I dunno what happened between us, but I never brought it up because it hurt okay? It just _hurt_ and it was a long time ago.”

“What’s his name? Do you know why he’s here?” Lisa almost sounded interrogative. She was planning something.

“He’s just an ex now, Lisa, and by the way this conversation’s going it looks like we’re headed the same way I did with him. What are you gonna do with his name? It’s not like you two will probably ever meet. Dean was nervous. How the hell was he gonna know the guy’s name? Jo just said he rarely came around ‘cause of his work but when he did he had a corner meant for himself. She’d been talking about this mystery guy she refused to identify just to spite Dean because he’d been waiting for a moment to finally get to talk to the guy that he’d only seen in pictures Jo has. Just his luck he saw blue eyes on the one day Lisa was trying to get him to look for someone else before they broke up.

“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” Lisa said before Castiel abruptly heard the sound of a chair being pulled back, increasingly loud footsteps, and a protesting Dean. That can only mean—

“Excuse me, hello,” a flashing white smile nearly blinded Castiel as Lisa invaded his booth and sat down, Dean standing a few steps behind. “My name’s Lisa, what’s yours?”

Castiel sat stunned, processing the events that had transpired in the last sixty seconds. Dean lied and said Castiel was his ex-boyfriend to try to get Lisa to not set him up with someone else and Lisa took it upon herself to confront Castiel about a love affair gone wrong.

_Okay, here goes._

“Castiel Novak. Hello Dean,” he turned to the now exasperated man.

This was almost worth it then and there when Dean’s eyes widened in shock.

“See Dean? Why wouldn’t you just tell me his name?”

Dean was speechless. He was still registering for the fact that this total stranger—this totally breathtakingly _hot_ stranger—was now acting as if they were old friends. It only hit Dean that Castiel had overheard everything said when he started hearing Ash speak on the other side of the bar in full quality. _That explains that._

Castiel took Dean’s silence as a segue. “My work is of top level clearance. Giving my name to a civilian would have put me in jeopardy.” He was nothing if not a man that can figure out complex problems, be it astronaut suits or fake relationships.

“Oh, my apologies. Would it be possible to know what you do then, even if it is just to try to understand why Dean never even once mentioned you in passing?”

Castiel took it all in stride. “You now know my name; therefore, it is okay. I work at NASA as chief engineer overseeing astronaut training. The entire operation needs specific levels of government issued clearance to know that we even exist or where to find us,” which is true. NASA is pretty much almost like the military and Cas is in charge of his own garrison of workers.

“So an engineer that’s easy on the eyes and a respectable job,” Lisa reasoned. Dean had no choice but to sit down then. Lisa was in interrogation mode. “So tell me then, Castiel, do you know who I am?”

“I believe you are Lisa Breaden, Dean’s girlfriend.”

“I am his ex, but you are correct.” Castiel didn’t fail to catch the slight cringe in Dean’s face before he looked at Castiel fully. That must’ve been the first time it  had been verbalized.

Lisa continued, “You know who I am then, which means what happened between you and Dean was more recent than Dean had said it was.”

Castiel’s eyes narrowed. Lisa was searching for holes in his story. Thank God Jo never stopped talking about Dean’s love life.

“We broke up about two and a half years ago. I suppose that would still constitute as recent since I was before you but long as it was over two years ago.”

Lisa turned to a still speechless Dean. “You always said there was someone before. I thought it was a ‘Cassie’ way back in the past, but I never thought it was a ‘Cas.’

“Y-yeah… Cassie was kinda a weird name to call him anyway. It’s really just Cas…” Dean’s voice trailed off, completely in shock to this entire situation and how perfectly it was fitting in with this lie and his life. _If that say anything about me,_ Dean thought. “Lisa, I’m sure Cas has important stuff to take care of. We should really get back.”

“Oh but I’m just getting to the bottom of this!” Lisa pouted. She was having just as much fun as she thought she was going to have, and her plan’s almost done. “You said you ended on bad terms, but you also told me Cas was important to you and I want to know why.”

“I was important to you?” Castiel didn’t mean to voice his thought. The sudden inclusion of what can only be assumed to be a different Cassie into the conversation threw this entire fake relationship. He was gonna need more information if they were going to not get caught.

“Yeah…” Dean suddenly shrunk to look like a kid, shy, confused, not sure what to do. “You were important ‘cause… ‘cause you were the first person I ever loved.”

_Well this keeps getting better and better._

“You never told me that,” Castiel felt himself get carried away in the moment, unsure where the sudden emotion came from. This real Cassie must’ve been something to get Dean so quiet.

“Yeah, well. Timing never really worked out for me to tell you. Life got in our way.”

For whatever reason Castiel felt a pang of jealousy for the real Cassie. A first love, even if it’s unspoken, is far more valuable than any moment in life, and that’s why Castiel couldn’t help but let himself think this was all true for a bit. They stared at each other, the implication of those words heavy before Lisa spoke up.

“Dean… what happened?”

The entire situation came back to Dean then, how this was all fake, emotions of the past were being dredged up because yeah, maybe Dean could see himself saying it for real to this “Cassie” in front of him one day, too. But Dean’s always been a hopeless romantic that thought he even had a chance with this guy after this mess.

“Uh, well Cas, why don’t you tell that bit? We’re not getting out of this until you do.”

“M-my job…” Castiel’s mumbled as thoughts returned to him. “It was nothing serious, Lisa. There was no monster truck killing my parents or anything of the sort. The reason is actually rather comical in retrospect. You see, my supervisors caught us in a restricted section of the astronaut training department where we house the anti-gravity sleeping quarters,” he pointedly looked at Dean with a smirk on his face. “We had wanted to _test_ them out and got caught…multiple times.”

Cas got the reaction he was looking for as Dean let out an enormous laugh upon getting the mental image. Lisa was smiling, too, as the last few bits of her plan were falling into place.

“Oh you’re kidding me. Dean!” Lisa playfully slapped Dean’s shoulder. Just like that, they went to friends as compared to the awkwardness of earlier.

“Well I couldn’t exactly tell you all that! It’s all top secret,” Dean was on the verge of tears from laughing at the sheer situation he found himself in. He finally got the chance to meet the guy he’s been waiting months for and it turns out _this_ way.

“Well, then it seems you guys only parted because of outside forces, not because you didn’t want to,” Lisa concluded, satisfied.

“Yes. It was a good relationship, wasn’t it, Dean?” Castiel couldn’t help but smile now.

“Yeah, one of the best,” Dean matched his smile. There was a pointed end to the conversation there as Dean and Cas finished riding the high of this entire ordeal before reality came back.

It was all fake. What were they even talking about? A silent conversation seemed to pass between Dean and Cas, one trying to figure out what the other should say next.

“It sounds like you guys did, but actually Dean if it’s alright with you, I’m gonna be heading out and let you two catch up,” Lisa scoots by Dean and got out of the booth, and just like that before Dean could get a word in edgewise, Lisa dropped the money on Dean and her’s now vacant table and left.

The gravity of the situation now falls on Dean as he turns to Castiel. “I’m so sorry about all of this. She just started getting up and walking and next thing I kn—”

“Dean. It’s alright,” Castiel cuts off Dean’s blabbing. “I rather enjoyed this. It made my free day eventful.

Dean let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “So you’re not mad?”

“Do I have a reason to be?”

“N-no it’s just that you made up an entire story just to save my ass from hell she’d bring my way in trying to set me up with someone.”

“I am not mad, Dean, and I would like to attest that I think our story was rather poetic was it not?”

Dean huffed a laugh before realizing something. “Dean Winchester. Chief Mechanic at the Cape loading docks, and yeah, I guess it was.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Dean Winchester,” Castiel smiled. “Castiel Novak. Engineer at NASA.”

“Wait, you weren’t kidding about that?”

“I find that to validate a lie with truth is to make the story more believable. All I said was true aside from what you supplied.”

Dean caught on. “Yeah, Cassie was my first love. Sorry to spring that on you like that. It wasn’t cool.

“It is not of import. What matters is whether or not you are alright.”

“You know what? I think I am actually. Met a nice guy, remembered a great fake relationship, and broke up with my girlfriend at the right time. I’m actually _really_ okay with all of that.” Dean’s words were honest.

That gave Castiel the push he needed. “You know, our fake relationship was really great.”

“Yeah, it’s a shame we broke up, what with getting caught in the testing centers, which by the way sound amazing.”

“Oh, those are not real. Astronauts test in underwater environments because it’s the closest thing we have to anti-gravity,” Castiel deadpanned.

Dean’s face half fell, almost disappointed at the fact. Castiel catches it quickly.

“That doesn’t mean we don’t have other interesting rooms worth checking out… if you’re up for it.”

Cas catches Dean’s eyes again, recognition dawning as to what Castiel is asking. “So, want to get back together Cas?”

“So long as we don’t get caught, I would love to try that, Dean.”

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr! My writing blog is [cardinalwrites](http://cardinalwrites.tumblr.com)


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